Living Car Free - why always a motor

ok i have a pedicab buisness its just me and one cab. anyway every time i ride people always tell me i should put a motor on it. they tell me how they would do it. i explain that defies the purpose of it and they look at me like im dumb. why does every one want to put a motor on it?

hows that peddicab work out...got any pics

ok i have a pedicab buisness its just me and one cab. anyway every time i ride people always tell me i should put a motor on it. they tell me how they would do it. i explain that defies the purpose of it and they look at me like im dumb. why does every one want to put a motor on it?

It's easy to understand really, mate. 90% of the folk's alive today don't remember horse(or people) powered anything let alone vehicles. So any vehicle (which is what a pedicab is) should have motor in
their minds.

hows that peddicab work out...got any pics

i live in a city on the shore of lake michigan it works well im making money. ill dig up some pics for ya

these are some pics i had on the computer here at work. i dont really like this cab im going to sell it soon and buy a much better one

ok i have a pedicab buisness its just me and one cab. anyway every time i ride people always tell me i should put a motor on it. they tell me how they would do it. i explain that defies the purpose of it and they look at me like im dumb. why does every one want to put a motor on it?
That's really cool. Waht is the purpose of it? Is it a fun business? How many miles do you pedal in an average day? Is the money any good? What do you do in the winter?

What the heck's wrong with that cab!? Looks AWESOME! :D Shades of London double decker busses.

NICE! :D

these are some pics i had on the computer here at work. i dont really like this cab im going to sell it soon and buy a much better one

Looks nice to me man; why get rid of it?

Why don't you ask them if they would have spent their money to ride a motorcycle taxi?

How mucha one of them things cost?

ok q&a time its great business, its so much fun you met alot of fun people. today i worked some festival we had in town i got there way late so only rode maybe an hour and a half i rode i think 11 miles and thats 5 miles round trip from my house. i work for tips only and i made $25 so not too bad. i once worked for 8 houres and made 150 in 23 miles. as far as winter goes i have another job to pay the bills in the winter(thanxs to my brother) im going to sell this one because i want a better one this one was a cheap one just to see if i could make money with it. this one was cheap it $2400 plus 300 to get it shipped here the one i want is about $4000 but i have a line on good used one.

That's a NICE pedicab, I'd keep it!

I've seen alot of varieties of those on eBay lately. They're pretty cool! If you lived in a town with alot of sites too see, especially (i.e. lots of tourism) you could make a killing.

cabana--thanks for interesting a's to our q's.

Wow Cabana, that's really cool business...

Have you thought of hiring a teen in the summer to use that cheaper pedicab and "expand" your business? Give him a fair part of the cab fee, and use the extra to help pay for newer cab faster?

Man, as a teen i woul've LOVED that summer job.

It's easy to understand really, mate. 90% of the folk's alive today don't remember horse(or people) powered anything let alone vehicles. So any vehicle (which is what a pedicab is) should have motor in
their minds.

Agreed.

When I used to ride my 16' inch wheel folder, people would assume that it had or needed an engine since the wheels were so small, it must have been difficult to peddal. I would always tell people that I was the motor and that none was needed.

You have to understand that most people are ignorant when it comes to human power transportation. The thought that someone could ride a machine under their own power for long distances is considered very, very difficult and should only be attempted with a motor car. Using human power to transport one self is often considered an act of desperation as the person cannot even afford public transportation.

That's true. I rode my bike to work a few times now, and this last time one of the guys asked me, "What's wrong with your car?" I thought maybe he was talking about my mooshed rear bumper (fiberglass, what junk lol) on my Grand Am (forgetting for a moment I'd ridden my bike to work), and couldn't figure out what he meant. The people there think I'm a bit nutty (well okay, they did anyway, this just added to it :rolleyes: ).

Do they suggest an electric or gas motor? I wouldn't have any problems with an electric motor, though I suppose if you want to get really picky you could always trace the electricity back to a "dirty" source...

They're pretty cool! If you lived in a town with alot of sites too see, especially (i.e. lots of tourism) you could make a killing.

First, make sure that there are no local ordinances preventing the use of pedicabs in your area. If I remember correctly, the folks who started the pedicab service in my town (where there are TONS of tourists) had to fight a bit of a legal battle in order to operate their vehicles on city streets.

Also, I found this (http://www.bikesatwork.com/cycling-for-profit/pedicab-business/). Might be helpful to someone thinking about starting a pedicab business.